Jake Hunter

Registry of the Evolved Database

File #27 Feb 2009 20:35

Summary

Name Jake Hunter Aliases Status Unregistered Evolved Ability Density Control Gender Male Race/Eth. White; American Birthdate 01/05/1964 Age 45 Height 6' Build Muscular Eyes Brown Hair Brown Residence Unknown Employment Mercenary Helo Pilot Parents Unknown Siblings Unknown Marital Status Single Children None First Seen Half-Hinged Last Seen N/A Profile Brutally honest and just brutal all around, Jake is a paramilitary contractor that works for Fedor (not that he tells anybody that). Everything he does can be said to be in the style of some kind of hammer, be it a precise little rock-hammer tapping away at something or a jackhammer waking up the neighbors and tearing up the street.

portrayed by Michael Biehn

Background

There's absolutely nothing remarkable about Jacob Hunter that occurred while he was a child. He was the middle one of three brothers, not one of which he has seen since he was 24. After high school he enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps as an infantryman, his first orders taking him to 1st MarDiv in Camp Pendleton. He ended up being deployed all the time, seeing the world, getting drunk, getting in fights, getting in trouble, screwing lots of girls both foreign and domestic, and in spite of all that getting promoted.

At age 22 he re-enlisted as a Corporal and got to go to Scout Sniper School. His scores got him trained as a spotter, and he ended up being transferred to an infantry unit with 2nd MarDiv out of Camp Lejeune. More deployments. More Operations Other Than War. Another enlistment winding down, and Jake was thinking he'd go for a third enlistment until he got knocked down from sergeant to private for a drunk driving incident. In today's military the paperwork from a mistake like that will follow you forever. He just decided to quit.

Civilian life wouldn't work for Jake. It wasn't the discipline and the uniform wearing he missed. Truth to tell he couldn't stand that uniform bullshit and was never a particularly squared-away Marine. It was the excitement. The kicking in doors and hiding in the countryside for days waiting for someone to drive by so you could shoot them. The port calls overseas where you got to party and see new things, learn a few words of a new language, etc. These things just didn't happen in civilian life.

Knowing his paperwork would follow him into any branch he signed up with in the States, Jake got a lark of an idea and a plane ticket to France where he signed up in Castelnaudary for five years of service in the French Foreign Legion. His prior training helped him quite a bit, although his utter lack of how to speak French was a bit of a chore. Jake never thought of himself as much of a linguist, but immersion does wonders.

Opportunities opened up for a well-trained man with a clean slate in the Legion. Strictly by chance he found himself assigned to a post that hosted a foreign instructor in helicopter piloting, and Jake talked his way into groundschool for it with the understanding that he wouldn't be flying because he was enlisted. Like any student with an actual interest, he did well at it…well enough for one of the instructors to take notice and pull some strings, and get him to fly.

That instructor's name was Fedor, and he was an ex-Soviet pilot with a love for teaching that seemed not only to welcome Jake's interest in learning to fly, but nurtured it. Jake would've been an able student anyway, but having an able teacher only helped him along. They soon developed a closer working relationship than any of the other flight students did with their instructors, although that could easily have been because Jake was especially fortunate to even have one willing to get him behind the stick of an aircraft.

As with every flight student they had to rotate instructors for airtime. And as with every situation some people just don't like each other. More than a few of the other instructors resented having to spend any time at all on this enlisted guy who should never have been in the air anyway, and one day Jake got just one of those instructors as he went up for what should have been a routine flight. The helicopter was an old bird too obselete to be used in actual service, and maintenanced only as much as it was needed to keep it taking off and landing within safety specs. On his preflight checklist Jake noted an problem with the engine coolant on the helicopter but the instructor insisted it was nothing. Take off anyway.

Any other student might have been taken seriously. Though it occurred to Jake to put his foot down and refuse to fly until the problem was taken care of, he decided not to agitate the instructor and did what he was told. About five minutes into their flight path the engine overheated and smoke started issuing from the aircraft. Panicking, the instructor insisted on taking the controls and did so, Jake taking his hands off of the stick immediately. An emergency landing was attempted but the helicopter was doomed just fifty feet from the ground as it listed and flew to pieces from the rotors shattering on the earth.

The crash was immediately followed by a fire caused by leftover fuel, but by the time the rescue crew arrived they were amazed to find one thoroughly dead (but unburnt) flight instructor who was dragged from the crash site by one flight student named Jake who didn't have a scratch on him. Jake had no explanation for how he survived uninjured. He remembered being slammed around, having the console clamped down on him as the cockpit buckled on impact. He remembered even a piece of flying debris bouncing off of his ribcage in the chaos. All the time all he could think of was that you couldn't pull a needle out of his asshole, he was so freaked out.

Jake was questioned for the loss of the aircraft that resulted in the death of an instructor, and he told the truth about the whole business. Fortunately for him the evidence backed up what he said and Fedor backed him up too. Even Fedor know that instructor wasn't a particularly good one.

Little else of note happened in Jake's service with the Legion, at least that anyone else knew about. In secret he determined to get to the bottom of why he survived that crash. The puzzle didn't start to resolve itself until he got a knife jabbed in his gut one day by a drunken Australian sailor spoiling for a fight. Jake thought he just couldn't feel the stab wound, but after he beat the hell out of that sailor he realized he felt like he was superhumanly strong or something. And the knife not only did not harm him but failed even to puncture his shirt. Experimenting later only determined that Jake was not in fact invulnerable and could prick himself with a needle if he tried. It really confused him. Why not a helicopter crash or a knife to the gut, but needles or razors? Was it because he was only invulnerable to what other people did to him?

Eventually he learned that it was the tensing up that did it. Not only would Jake become almost invulnerable to trauma just by tensing his body, he also became stronger and heavier at the same time. His body became superdense and took anything he was wearing on him into that state at the same time. Experimenting with a bathroom scale he accidentally found he could go the other direction and become superlight as well, but after losing his balance and breaking his arm on a toilet seat of all things he found out just how dangerous being LESS dense than normal could be.

When Jake's five years of service ended he considered re-enlisting, but instead bid farewell to the Legion. He was getting tired of taking orders from politicians, and knew one man out there that somewhat shared that viewpoint. So it was he looked up Fedor, now going by the name Fedor Ibragimov. Fedor owned a company called Chicago Air, and Jake found himself welcomed with opened arms into his old teacher's employ.

When he confided in Fedor what he could do, why he survived that crash in North Africa, it opened some eyes. Because Fedor had a secret too that he shared in turn. Now Jake Hunter works for Ibragimov, but it's the best job he's ever had in the world. He gets to use his training and expertise doing things that nobody else would ever be allowed to do, and he also gets about as much time off as any guy could ever want. It's more like being a fulltime mercenary on retainer. Life is good.

Psych Profile

Jake Hunter is a salty old veteran of everybody else's wars. While his lifestyle is military through and through, his outlook on life seems anything but. He is sloppy with speech and demeanor, and always thought the spit-and-polish crowd were full of shit. They didn't get what was REAL, and Jake cares about what he considers real (which is generally people doing the best they can for their own relative circumstances). He's a hard drinker, when he drinks, and a hard partier when he parties. This is because he's also a hard worker when he works. Everything Jake does is hard, down to how he solves problems…the hard way. He is fearless not because he has real courage but just because he's seen it all. All the fear's been scared out of him by now, and he just doesn't have room for that kind of emotion anymore. Ditto other such feelings as surprise and worry. Jake is a fatalist. Something's either gonna happen or it won't. One of his greatest virtues is that Jake is utterly devoid of anything most people would recognize as prejudice or being judgmental. After the things he's seen and been through, there's no room for that either.

Evolved Ability

Jake is able to modulate the atomic density of his body and any items on his person (including objects he carries) provided he maintains physical contact with said objects. Any object that leaves his physical contact instantly regains its natural density after he lets it go, but he can re-attune it to his relative density upon touching it again should he choose. His control over his personal density allows him to take himself to both extremes: Superdense and superlight. Each state of density carries with it certain benefits and drawbacks. His control is such that changes in density can be accomplished nearly instantaneously and require only acts of will to activate. In his own mind Jake thinks of becoming more dense as "tensing up" and becoming more light as "relaxing". While he is able to remain superlight for a seemingly unlimited amount of time, Jake has found that his ability to remain superdense is limited in time to about five minutes at a stretch and potentually as much as ten minutes if he strains depending on health and strength of will. This time limit factor only really comes into play for continuous uninterrupted superdensity use. There are no limits per day of how many times Jake can become superdense for short stretches of time up to about five minutes, but any more than that and he starts to feel a little fatigue. Should he tax this ability to its limit, he suffers an incapacitating fatigue and body cramps that put him in agony until he can recover. Such a recovery process can take anywhere between three and six hours.

Superdense
The state of physical superdensity carries with it primarily the characteristic that relative to the world around him, Jake is made of steel and everything else is styrofoam. The net effect of this is that in his superdense state Jake demonstrates a high degree of physical resilience which is nearly invulnerable to the negative effects of matter and kinetic forces. He also has a form of superhuman strength in this state. The effects of both of these are variable depending on just how dense Jake chooses to be. It can be just somewhat more dense, in which case he's a little tougher, a little stronger than normal. Or it can be extremely more dense, to which point Jake could lift trucks over his head and confidently jump off of a building knowing that the concrete is soft enough to cushion his fall without injury (and he will leave a Jake-shaped impact crater). He has a definite upper limit to just how dense he can make himself, since it's like tensing a muscle. One can only tense so hard. So the strongest he ends up being is able to lift about three tons, and the toughest he gets is to exceed the hardness of most forms of steel. Diamond, carborundum, and other similarly hard materials could still manage to probably scratch him in his densest state. It is also important to note that regardless of his density, Jake is never immune to or toughened against heat, light, or other forms of electromagnetic radiation and energy.

Superlight
Superlight - The state of physical superlightness is risky for Jake, because conversely to superdensity in this state the entire world is made of steel and Jake is made of styrofoam. He becomes very light and bouyant in this state, able to walk on water as if he weighed one pound and was made of cork, or to catch a breeze and be blown away on the wind…which is not really a good option most of the time. Being superlight is useful for a few things, such as mitigating the impact of a fall or floating on water, or avoiding leaving footprints or other signs that depend on body weight. Jake is able to remain superlight for as long as he feels like concentrating on it and relaxing himself. It actually feels pleasant. But being superlight comes with a risk, because in that state Jake is highly susceptible to injury and very delicate. A thrown wad of paper thrown at him in this state could hurt as if he were beaned with a baseball, and forget shooting the guy. Even a BB gun would punch holes through him. A single punch from a normal person could potentially be lethal. Needless to say Jake willfully uses this state very rarely. Unfortunately whether he likes it or not Jake finds himself slipping into a state of superlightness almost every time he goes to sleep and while under the influence of certain drugs such as muscle relaxants and tranquilizers. Fortunately alcohol, pot, and most other recreational substances do not induce this state for him (unless he passes out).

Appendices

Skills

Combat

Armed or unarmed, Jake will kill you if you ask for it. He doesn't have a whole lot of practice with the 'be gentle and don't hurt them' style of holding back. His idea of nonlethal is breaking limbs, because those will heal. Academically speaking his chosen combat "style" is derived primarily from William Fairbairn's combat system called Defendu, or Scientific Self-Defense. This particular system of combat utilizes armed and unarmed techniques with all things from pistols to knives to shovels and weapons of opportunity, methods for breaking necks, putting out eyes, crushing throats, and was developed by Colonel Fairbairn in his years in the Shanghai Police Department prior to World War II. It is the quintessential dirty fighting system. More practically Jake likes and SAYS he fights with Defendu, but in actual fact he ends up using anything that comes to mind. His style is not a style anyone is likely to recognize, but is so scary-effective as to make him some kind of potential murder machine.

Jake once killed a man with a disposable cup full of coffee. No shit.

Driving and Piloting

Like many people Jake is a pretty good driver. He's at home behind the wheel of a stick or automatic, car, truck, or van, and even motorcycles. Where he differs is that he's actually received training on the bigger crazier things like 5-ton trucks and large diesel vehicles, and even old style tanks. He's also been trained in flying helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft. His piloting skills are not such to make him an ace, and in fact if things get complicated there are many better pilots out there that will do the job better than him. When it comes to making vehicles go, Jake is a jack of all trades, master of none.

Languages

Jake is a native English speaker, but fluent in French. His skill is merely conversational in Arabic, Spanish, Russian, and German, which is to say he understands it a whole lot better than he manages to speak it. He can swear fluently in about six more assorted tongues.

Storytelling

Especially once he gets to drinking Jake often starts to talk, and when he talks stories come out. Sometimes they're wildly embellished, but more often than people would believe they're not. At all. He's seen so much crap in his life it's easy for him to talk all night long about what he's done and heard about.

Scrounging

In the military this is sometimes called "requisitioning", "reconning", or just plain "stealing". It's a talent for finding stuff you need that you didn't bring with you or have to replace, and what you're looking for doesn't belong to you. It's also a talent for making it vanish in a manner so the original owners won't miss it until it's too late.

Marksmanship

Jake was brought up in the Marine Corps style of shooting, and therefore loves to shoot. And he's damned good at it too. It's been many years now, but he actually did go to Scout Sniper school while in the Corps. He was a spotter, not a sniper, but a spotter can do incredible things at incredible distances as well. And they're also much better at calculating range, windage, and elevation adjustments. His experienced grasp of the science of ballistics grants Jake an easy talent for guessing just how far away something is and what it'll take to put a bullet in it from here.

Skydiving

This isn't the flashy fun recreational skydiving of civilian clubs. This is the all-business kind of skydiving that's only about getting men from the sky to the ground in fighting shape. Not much to say here except that Jake can pack his own chute and isn't afraid to jump out of an aircraft wearing one. And he knows both how to open it in time for a good landing and how to hit the ground without breaking anything, because even with a chute on a diver comes in at a pretty hard landing.

National Geographic

When you've traveled much of the world, met interesting people, and annihilated them, you learn a lot about the world. With a small margin of error Jake could tell you where in the world almost every country is and what some of the cities in each are. He knows what the food's like in those places, what the people and politics are like in general, and about how dangerous they are. He's been through every kind of climate humanity experiences. He's also seen a whole lot of crazy animals and knows how some of them taste.

---

Relationships

Fedor

Fedor
Fedor is Jake's boss, his teacher, and his best friend all rolled into one. Jake understands that he might just be Fedor's one regular relationship in the world, and he likes to keep the man grounded. Not that that's such an easy task with an effectively immortal fighter pilot, but Fedor makes it as easy as he can by being a personable guy. With Jake, at least.

Samantha

Samantha
A hot one-night stand that lasted all night long. Jake doesn't know what this woman does for a living, and he doesn't care. As far as he's concerned she's a woman that turns him on in all the right ways, and not only physically. He doesn't really do relationships and all but knows that she doesn't either, but beyond the fact that she's one hell of a booty call Jake actually likes Sam.

Zuleyka

Zuleyka
Jake just might have run across the child he never had in this young lady. As soon as he met her he liked her. And as soon as he saw an excuse to do so he got her hired into Fedor's operation, Chicago Air. She killed a pigeon just to prove a point, and Jake never did like those nasty fucking flying rats. Plus her pragmatic attitude is completely up his alley. If he has his way he'll teach her everything he knows about how to kick ass.

Cardinal

Cardinal
Coworker, good friend, and drinking buddy. Secretly Jake harbors a belief that Cardinal is an evil creature from Hell who masquerades as a human and tries to get people to be his friend. If Jake weren't an atheist he'd probably drive a stake through Card's heart for him while he slept. As it is, Jake thinks that if there is a Hell at all he's going there too, so might as well have some good natured drinks with this guy. And they've never been anything but cool with each other. This is one of the few people (Fedor and Zu being the others) that Jake would go out of his way to help.

Kimiko

Kimiko
Poor lady. Jake got sent after her to kidnap her, cuff and stuff in a van. Aside from searching her (so thoroughly he probably should've bought her a drink) he really didn't do anything but try to make her feel comfortable. Not his fault she pissed off the Money.

Huruma

Huruma
Hooma, as he calls her, is hot and mysterious and badass. Jake's about 75% convinced she's all drama. He knows she has some crazy creepy emotion-control power, but he also knows he has some crazy in-your-face kick your head off and throw it in the ocean power. So really he's not afraid of her at all. In fact he believes she is a "big ol pussy" and that people are only scared of her "because she's black".

Adam

Adam
Funky old bastard. He's polite and nice to your face but Jake thinks he's one of those types who'll smile at you while he plans to kill you. Kind of like Pol Pot. That said, Jake's dealt with so many people like that it makes no difference to him.

---

Timeline

---

Miscellaneous

Roleplaying notes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOhRe19rROA

Gallery

Gallery

Memorable Quotes

Memorable Quotes

• "I diddled this one chick? She seemed kinda tough." - Describing Samantha as a potential hire.
• "Mm. That's what they call it? Pancratium? That's precious." sniffs Jake. He's still got his cigar but decides to shake out the cherry on it to save the rest of it for later. After squelching it on the floor he goes back to pizza. "And I hear you, Chief." he says to Fedor, "Just sayin', wrecking crew's the work I do. I get that it's a good deed and all. Just, there's actual ordinance moved in on Manhattan, National Guard fuckers. How hard is it really to take some of their toys and…aww you know how I like to do it. I'm a dirty fighter." He grins.
• "Awww fuck me…" - Jake's signature catch-phrase

Trivia and Notes

Trivia and Notes

• Various inspirations for Jake Hunter are: Brock Samson from Venture Bros, Corporal Hicks from Aliens, Lou Diamond of the United States Marine Corps, and every meatheaded Marine the player has ever known in his life.
• Jake is a retread of a character template this player has used in more than one other setting. He tends to generate a lot of fun and memorable moments, which is why he has been given yet another chance here on String Theory.